Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-09-09
The Event of the Week.

Barrctt's Circus pitched its tents
Wednesday on the Blinn block and
adjacent streets, at the head Of our
main thoroughfare The space being
somewhat limited, the company were
unable to give some Of the main fea-
lures advertised, that are performed on
the platform usually constructed be-
tween the two rings. The attendance
was quite large in the afternoon and
about half the seats were occupied at
the evening performance. The usual
feats on horseback were performed by
this company with a grace and skill
rarely equaled in the arena, and the
trapeze performances were excellent,
the eliminating feature being head
balancing on the bar by Geo. Scott,
who with feet in the air at dizzy
height lighted and smoked a cigarette
and performed feats of jugglery while
in that unusual position. This GER
tainly required an extraordinary
steadiness of nerve. The vaulting
was likewise good, several of the per-
formers turning a double summersault
while passing over two elephants and
and four camels placed side by side, a
distance of over % feet. The bicycle
riding was omitted for the want of a
stage, but at Seattle, Martell, one of
the riders, mounted a one-wheeled
cycle and rode it with seemingly the
ease of an ordinary bicycle. In this
performance, miss of tender years
took the palm by executing many
extraordinary feats on the wheels.
Jo-Jo, the much-advertised dog-faced
boy, was not 50 much of curiosity as
the people had been led to expect. He
is simply man with an abnormal
growth of hair on face and limbs.
The menagerie embraced quite col
lection of animals of the cat species,
such as tigers, leopards and cougars,
and of the dog family, headed by an
excellent representation of the king OF
beasts, the lion. Three elephants, and
a number of very ugly dromedaries,
appeared on parade and were the CEN
trail figures OF the animal show.
A side tent contained a collection of
physical monstrosities, differing but
little from those that have been fire.
quently seen by our people in other
travelling shows. The midgets were
there, little chap dressed in a style OF
clothing which, with stove-pipe hat,
made his statement that he was q
years of age barely palatable, and a
little lady, who despite those accessor-
les could not have been 10 years old,
although she passed for 10. The Cir
cassian beauties, with their fair skins
and wonderful abundance of fine curly
hair, may have been built up" some
what as Barnum's woolly-horse was
transformed into curiosity if not a
thing of beauty. The wild woman
was apparently of IL or IA years of
age, and was noted more for docil- |
ity than any other popularity ex-
cept the smallness of her head and
idiocy of expression. The fat woman
seemed to be in prime condition, as a
Chicagoan would express it. Her
name is Miss Ida Williams Wright,
and at the ago Of - years -.sl,o is rep
resented as weighing 566 pounds
Her arms at the shoulder measure "a
inches in circumference. She is bright |
and vivacious, and intent on turning
an honest penny" in the sale of pic
lures of her voluptious self. The
tatooed man and the giant, complete
the list of side-show attractions, and
majority Of the circus audience will
ingly paid the Is cents additional to
visit them.
Now tina. the great show has come
and gone, the popular pulse beats at
its usual pace. The school-boy can
return to his books with renewed zest,
and grown children will sleep sounder,
freed from the incessant importuni-
ties of the little ones to count the days
and hours which slowly dragged their
weary weight along from the time the
flaming show-bills appeared till the
performance began. Our merchants
beam with satisfaction over the har-
vest reaped in the increased patronage
incident to an unusually large atten-
dance of visitors from abroad, and so
far there seems to be little cause for
regret that the circus embraced Olym-
pia in its round of stopping-pl places.
Many of the steam ferry boats in